Compare And Contrast How I Learned To Drive And Electricidad

At the early age of nine months, a baby girl most commonly busts out her first word in two syllables: “Da-Da.” Dad. Within her first year of living, her life revolves around her father. Such is the case for Li’l Bit and Electricidad from Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive and Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad, respectively. Stuck in suburban Maryland without ever meeting her biological father, the pubescent Li’l Bit fills the void by developing an emotionally-dependent and sexual relationship with her charming Uncle Peck. In contrast, Electricidad has grown up with her father throughout her life into adulthood, but she feels this bond stripped away and seeks vengeance when her mother Clemencia murders him. Although Uncle Peck is not Li’l Bit’s biological

In the first scene of How I Learned to Drive, Li’l Bit introduces Peck as “a man old enough to be — did I mention how still the night is?” (9). Although Li’l Bit changes the subject before she can finish her sentence, the audience can infer that she means to say “a man old enough to be my dad.” Although some may argue that she plans to say something else, comparing Uncle Peck, a man whom she has sexual relations with, to her own father is exactly the disturbing thought that compels her to change the subject to something as trivial as “how still the night is.” As the first characteristic that materializes in her mind, Li’l Bit acknowledges that her Uncle Peck’s old age reminds her of her father, which gives her justification to replace her real father with Uncle Peck. Li’l Bit confirms this in “You and Reverse Gear,” where at the age of eleven she convinces her mother to let her have driving lessons with Uncle Peck. While she indirectly states that developing a bond with Uncle Peck would give her “a chance at having a father,” she evokes a tone of longing when she fervently exclaims, “Someone! A man who will look out for me!” Wishing to persuade her mom further, she even employs rhetoric by asking “Don’t I get a chance?” (55). Both her exclamations and use of a rhetorical question indicate how desperately she desires to have a father. This

As described in the book Paula Vogel by Joanna Mansbridge, negative empathy “works against conditioned moral responses by structuring an emotional connection to characters that, under normal circumstances, would be relatively categorized and dismissed” (7). Although society would normally mark and dismiss Uncle Peck as a pedophile, Vogel gives him a charming voice and demeanor that makes the audience question whether they should hate him. At the dinner table, he is the only family member to defend her, telling her grandpa to “let [his argument with her] go” and saying that he believes her college education will be “wonderful” (Vogel 14). In their family, Peck supports Li’l Bit as her only ally. He comforts her and seems to genuinely care for her. Furthermore, Li’l Bit does have some control in their relationship and abuses her power in a similar manner to him. Despite limiting his drinking in the past, on her eighteenth birthday she urges him to drink so that he does not “let a lady drink alone” (50). As a result, after she rejects his proposal, he spirals back into the alcoholism that she originally disrupted. The audience asks, “Is he an evil person, or does he just commit evil acts? Is he simply too weak to resist her?” If they decide he is not an evil person, then this lessens the gravity of his